employment

After years of planning, work begins next month on the the new Grand Avenue Bridge project. The first few months will be more low-key and need fewer workers, doing things like prepping areas underneath and near the ends of the bridge, as well as pouring the foundations for its pillars.

The Aspen Police Department is fully staffed again, after a handful of officers announced earlier this year they were leaving. Four officers are joining the department. Two graduated from the Colorado Law Enforcement Training Academy on Friday.

Two of the new officers are already residents of the Roaring Fork Valley - Adriano Minniti and Seth DelGrasso. Josh Uhernik is from out of state. Duxton Milam is from the Front Range. Two of the four bring previous law enforcement experience.

If you have an opinion about the new Grand Avenue Bridge, now there’s another month to let officials know. The Colorado Department of Transportation has extended the comment period for the Glenwood Springs project.

CDOT has gotten a lot of feedback already about the proposal...specifically the Environmental Assessment released at the beginning of the month. Spokeswoman Tracy Truelove says at a recent public hearing, some people were asking for more time to consider the bridge replacement.

Penny Pritzker is US secretary of commerce, since June 2013. Previously, she was CEO of PSP Capital Partners and has developed such diverse companies as Vi, The Parking Spot, and Pritzker Realty Group. During the Obama administration, Pritzker has served on the President’s Council for Jobs and Competitiveness and the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She is also a board member of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, Marmon Group, and LaSalle Bank Corporation. Much of Pritzker’s civic work focuses on public education. In 2012, she received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service.

As the Valley’s population ages, some seniors are finding themselves working far past retirement age. Reasons vary from financial necessity to simply enjoying the social aspects the workplace offers. Aspen Public Radio’s Rebecca Kruth checked in with a couple of local seniors to find out what’s kept them in the workforce.

Rich Burge has been working since he was a boy. The 75-year-old property manager said he’ll do it until he can’t anymore.

“I’ve joked that someday they’ll find me face down in one of my homes I take care,” Burge said.

Residents of the Roaring Fork Valley work a wide range of jobs, from ski lift operators and bus drivers to carpenters and seasonal police officers who patrol for signs of bears. Today we start a series we’re calling Working The Valley.

Kurt Fehrenbach is a long-time Valley resident who splits his time teaching skiing in the winter and helping mountain bikers in the summer. His job as a Bike Pro in Snowmass Village is relatively new but, he says, he’s been biking nearly all his life. Aspen Public Radio’s Marci Krivonen reports.